One of the great films of the year, Sho Miyake’s gorgeous, tranquil Two Seasons, Two Strangers picked up the Golden Leopard at Locarno last summer and will now get a U.S. release this April. Set for a North American premiere at New Directors/New Films on April 17 and 19, it’ll then begin its theatrical release at NYC’s Metrograph starting April 24 with the director in person. Ahead of the release from Several Futures, the new trailer has now arrived.
Here’s the synopsis: “Based on two mangas by Yoshiharu Tsuge, who rose to underground celebrity thanks to his surrealist tales published in the pages of the bastion of Japanese avant-garde cartooning, Garo, Miyake’s bifurcated live-action feature observes (and draws parallels and contrasts from) a summertime meet-cute between Nagisa and Natsuo (Yuumi Kawai and Mansaku Takada) and a snowbound winter encounter between screenwriter Li and innkeeper Benzo (Shim Eun-kyung and Shinichi Tsutsumi). Winner of the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival, Two Seasons, Two Strangers is at one and the same time as simple as its straightforward title suggests and immensely, exhilaratingly complex.”
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Two Seasons is the third in a wonderful recent run by Miyake, joining Small, Slow But Steady (2022) and All The Long Nights (2024). With each he has shown a remarkable ability for mixing porcelain-like levels of craft and detail with stories of comparatively messy human compassion––a cinematic mix that never fails to delight. Despite racking up some awards for those films, his work plays at the kind of modest register that often keeps filmmakers of his ilk relatively below-the-radar or, at the very least, just shy of name recognition. Winning the Leopard might be the push that elevates him to auteur status and perhaps (with respect to Locarno) the biggest of the big competitions, where I feel he belongs.”
See the trailer below.